* Illinois Issues…
On September 18, 2012, the year before Bruce Rauner declared his candidacy for governor, he shared his vision for a crisis that could help reshape state government.
“In Illinois there’s been a long-time history of what I would call social service, social justice, a bigger role for government in the safety net than in many other states,” Rauner said at a tax policy conference sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute. “I think we can drive a wedge issue in the Democratic Party on that topic and bring the folks who say, ‘You know what? For our tax dollars, I’d rather help the disadvantaged, the handicapped, the elderly, the children in poverty. I’d rather have my tax dollars going to that than the SEIU or Af-scammy (AFSCME), who are out there for their own interests.’”
Three years later, Rauner says he’s “very unhappy” Illinois is without a budget. But he has followed through with his proposal that “the disadvantaged, the handicapped, the elderly, the children in poverty” be conscripted into his battle against organized labor. Domestic violence shelters are turning away victims. People with mental illness are losing access to treatment. Programs that make it less likely delinquent juveniles will become adult criminals are scaling back or closing. […]
All of this amounts to a selective government shutdown, and it appears to be the early result of Rauner realizing his vision. The plan imagined Democrats could be prodded into turning against unions. But a close examination of all the changes Rauner is demanding for labor in Illinois — and both the practical and political consequences of those changes — shows why Democrats have so far refused to relent, and why they say they never will. […]
In the run-up to the general election, on the other hand, Rauner was careful to mostly avoid union talk. “Pushing any specific labor regulation is not my priority at all,” he told Illinois Radio Network less than a month before voters went to the polls. Four months later, he unveiled the Turnaround Agenda. […]
Rauner, however, says his labor agenda “is not a partisan issue, it’s a good government issue.” At an appearance in Decatur last week, he discussed other topics, like selling the Thompson Center in Chicago and changes he wants for state pension plans. But he says labor is the core issue: “Are we going to be willing to modify how we handle collective bargaining inside government in Illinois or not? Are we going to take that on?” […]
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change,” Rauner told the Chicago Tribune editorial board in April. “We’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change.”
They missed one. Remember last year when he debated Pat Quinn at the Illinois Education Association?…
Quinn also compared Rauner to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, saying he wanted to bust unions.
“Limiting collective bargaining is not part of my agenda,” countered Rauner.
* And even though Gov. Rauner told the Tribune editorial board what he planned to do back in April, that board continues to put the blame solely on the House Speaker…
So if you think the Democrats are sincere about fixing their budget mess, think again. And catch this: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told us Wednesday that the county is waiting on $70 million from the state. When Preckwinkle talked to Madigan about the money this summer, he told her to not count on a budget resolution until 2016 … when the state runs out of money.
“I was surprised and disappointed,” Preckwinkle said.
Madigan’s spokesman didn’t get back to us to clarify. But Madigan’s plan is clear: Wait it out, refuse to budge, blame Rauner.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Madigan shares significant blame here. I would never suggest otherwise.
But the Tribune editorial board has its devil, so its members will see only what they want to see, even when the governor himself makes it plain as day. From today…
“We’re going through some change, change is difficult, change causes pain. We believe very strongly that we’re going to go through some short term pain for some very long term gain,” Rauner said.
He dismissed suggestions that his refusal to back down could do more harm than good should he not eventually get his way, saying he’s been encouraged by business leaders to “stay the course.”
- Sasquatch - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:27 am:
This says it all
He dismissed suggestions that his refusal to back down could do more harm than good should he not eventually get his way, saying he’s been encouraged by “business leaders” to “stay the course.”
He’s not listening to the citizens of Illinois
- Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:29 am:
He has said “short term pain” a few times now at least. Does he not realize the long term pain already inflicted and getting worse every week?
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:33 am:
It’s up to the Labor Movement, Democrats, and Social Service and their Advocates to highlight this type of blatently prepared destruction.
Rich and others are highlighting the institutional knowledge they have of Bruce Rauner, fairly, because Rauner actually said all these things.
Rauner is banking no one will pay attention, care, or worse counting on people to just ignore everyone but himself and shills like IPI and the Tribune Editorial Board.
Love write-ups like these, and when Rich makes it one-stop shopping to gain some serious knowledge.
- Wensicia - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:33 am:
Translation: “I don’t care.”
Those suffering mean nothing to him.
- Very Fed Up - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:34 am:
Someone would have to be pretty naive to think Madigan or Rauner have a genuine bone in their body that care about all those being taken hostage by this. Both need to give it up and meet somewhere in the middle.
- Bulldog58 - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:36 am:
he’s been encouraged by business leaders to “stay the course.”
Business leaders are rich guys, rich guys aren’t affected by this budget impasse.
- Norseman - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:38 am:
This was a good article, although as Rich pointed out, a lot more could have been written.
- PublicServant - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:40 am:
What exactly are people proposing that Madigan and the democrats give on in order to “compromise and meet in the middle?”
- Louis G. Atsaves - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:44 am:
“===Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told us Wednesday that the county is waiting on $70 million from the state. When Preckwinkle talked to Madigan about the money this summer, he told her to not count on a budget resolution until 2016 … when the state runs out of money.===”
Has Madigan’s office gotten back to anyone since this ran several days ago?
- Team Sleep - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:45 am:
Bulldog - I vehemently disagree. Business leaders in Illinois have, for decades, relied on and even expect tax credits, EDGE credits, abatements, insurance incentives, etc. Several entities threatened to move during Governor Quinn’s terms if the legislature did not greenlight spending to keep them put. CME comes to mind. Sears benefited as well. Ford got incentives to expand their southside plant.
There was a big write-up in Suburban Life about the agreement of Mars to open a factory and warehouse in Joliet. Guess what they receive in exchange for doing so?! Tax credits. But what happens if the City of Joliet and Will County are inordinately impacted by the stalemate? Will some of those credits and incentives be taken away? And then what? What if only 500 jobs are created - instead of 1,000?
- AnonymousOne - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:46 am:
What business leaders? Name names. Are those business leaders the only citizens of Illinois that matter? Never mind. Dumb question.
- Jocko - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:01 pm:
“We believe very strongly that we’re going to go through some short term pain for some very long term gain”
At least Wimpy provides specifics when he asks, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”
- Robert the Bruce - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:05 pm:
“We believe very strongly that we’re going to go through some short term pain for some very long term gain,”
Who is “we”?
- Juvenal - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:08 pm:
=== we’re going to go through some short term pain for some very long term gain ===
The “we” who is suffering and the “we” who stands to gain if Rauner is successful are two very different groups of folks.
Or as my grandpa used to say:
“You got a mouse in your pocket?”
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:10 pm:
===“Limiting collective bargaining is not part of my agenda,” countered Rauner.===
Pants on fire.
- Very Fed Up - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:14 pm:
“Meeting in the middle” might mean allowing term limits and redistricting reform to appear on the ballots. If Madigan feels strongly against these proposals he can make his case in an open, transparent and honest way with the voters. Refusing to allow even a vote on the issue is far extreme.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:16 pm:
My brother contends that Americans don’t care about much of anything as long as they’ve got the NFL.
An exaggeration, of course, but the great majority of Illinois citizens are not affected yet by the budget impasse. I’m not, personally, and I’m far from a rich guy, but I don’t need social services either. I doubt if many CapFax readers are personally affected either.
If we can’t afford to plow Interstates and State highways this winter, then maybe public pressure will mount.
- burbanite - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:22 pm:
You may think many aren’t affected but think again. While I am comfortable and don’t need the services I have a college student at a state university. So yea, it affects me.
- Anon221 - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:27 pm:
To see who is still owed, from the Comptroller’s site:
http://ledger.illinoiscomptroller.com/ledger/?LinkServID=97DB4F43-5056-932D-885FD09D1B90A56F&FY=2016&GroupBy=All
You can do a Find search, for instance by the name of the city, county, or agency to see what is owed vs what has been paid to date (10-22-15).
- Big Joe - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:28 pm:
Great summation at 11:33 Willy!! Short and right to the point. Wish the citizens of IL could all read that and realize just exactly is going on. Thanks again for the post.
- Former Hoosier - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:46 pm:
Just read an article in a local newspaper…Rauner, Kirk, Dold, Munger, and republican GA big wigs were at the New Trier Township republican dinner last Sunday. The article notes that the Gov. got a lot of support for his agenda from those present. So, he’s got his avid (locals who are his friends, neighbors and big donors) fans cheering him on. These are the citizens he listens to.
- JackD - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:47 pm:
Public Servant at 11:40 is right on. What do you blame Madigan for in this situation, Rich?
- Lobo Y Olla - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:48 pm:
==Love write-ups like these, and when Rich makes it one-stop shopping to gain some serious knowledge.
Amen, Willy.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:50 pm:
- Louis G Atsaves -
Wouldn’t this type of crisis, with Preckwinkle and Madigan, that would make Rauner a real hero if he saved the day?
But… that would be a bit odd, wouldn’t it? The hostage taker… a hero… for releasing the hostages?
BTW, - Louis G Atsaves - thoughts on the Edgar quotes? I’d like to know your thoughts on the matter.
- Wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 12:57 pm:
Any chance that the governor could articulate the projected “long-term gain?”
You, know, like a business plan, all chock-fulla numbers, graphs and charts?
Otherwise, all this pain is over some petulant child who wants a pony, just because.
- PublicServant - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:06 pm:
===“Meeting in the middle” might mean allowing term limits and redistricting reform to appear on the ballots. If Madigan feels strongly against these proposals he can make his case in an open, transparent and honest way with the voters. Refusing to allow even a vote on the issue is far extreme.===
While it “might” mean that to you VFU, I’ve yet to hear Rauner say he’d settle for anything like that, and frankly, even if you believed in both of those proposals, I don’t, neither solves any fiscal issues in this, or a decade’s out worth of budgets.
And to attempt to force compromise on either issue now, this year, by causing many people great anguish and pain is totally reprehensible.
You want those issues dealt with. ELECT enough representatives in both houses to get those issues dealt with. They call that democracy by the way. Democracy as opposed to the siege that Rauner is imposing on the poor to get his way on what he wouldn’t be able to get democratically.
- PublicServant - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:16 pm:
Democracy, by the way, isn’t something you ought to be able to leverage simply because you have money.
- Concerned - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:20 pm:
That whole democracy piece is what Rauner misses. I had assumed his plan was to impose some business discipline and processes, thus demonstrating that the government works better/cheaper/faster under his approach, thus leading to getting more of his people (either Republicans or Raunerites”) elected, and what would follow would be a gradual shift to his policy preferences as he showed he could run the railroad better.
That hasn’t happened. Instead, what we got was hostage taking until he imposes enough pain t get people to capitulate to his policy preferences.
That is not democracy.
- Ghost - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:27 pm:
business leaders - a couple of multimillionaire buddies visitng their ranches and looking for ways to move wealth away from the middle class….
- Louis G. Atsaves - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:30 pm:
@oswegowilly, my thoughts on the Edgar comments? He is entitled to his opinion. His opinion carries more weight than yours or mine.
I partially disagree with him asking Rauner to in effect run up the white flag and settling for not a crumb in exchange of a seriously unbalanced budget. That in my eyes does nothing to fix many institutionalized problems plaguing this State.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:33 pm:
- Louis G Atsaves -
Fair enough, bud.
I appreciate your response.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:43 pm:
Rauner doesn’t get half. He doesn’t get to meet “in the middle”. He doesn’t have enough votes to be in the middle. He gets to have what he is smart enough, diplomatic enough, and savvy enough to get.
That has always been the case. He did not win a mandate. Whatever mandate he got - he’s lost since then. We all saw him bleeding support across Illinois, even where he won a majority of votes handily. His policies are not accepted by a majority of voters - that would be half of them.
Rauner talks about stuff that half of Illinois would like to see. He then loses half of them when they listen to his policies.
No one Rauner knows is going to have to sacrifice anything. Rauner believes that his friends have already made sacrifices, and that Illinois needs to change who gets paid and by how much, in order to “share the sacrifice”. Rauner believes that if you are not one of his business friends, you aren’t sacrificing.
Rauner is a repeated liar. You don’t believe liars no matter how rosy a future their stories portray it to be.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:50 pm:
==You may think many aren’t affected but think again. While I am comfortable and don’t need the services I have a college student at a state university. So yea, it affects me.==
Has that state university been closed yet? Have any critical services at it been stopped? Is your student still attending classes?
Most state-funded institutions and agencies are continuing along, however shakily; until the pain personally affects the great majority of Illinoisans, this thing will go on.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 1:56 pm:
- Lobo Y Olla - and - Big Joe -,
Thanks, I’ll sheepishly take your words, but it’s Rich and others work that deserve the accolades.
To the Post,
Let’s remember, Rauner will let this go thru the holiday season, thanksgiving thru the new year.
Homeless shelters, food pantries, advocates for all types of victims of violence, domestic and otherwise, will be, undone very literal cases “out in the cold”.
Diana Rauner, and “Ounce”;
What are you both prepared to do?
Mrs. Rauner was in Ads, and kept her job, with a state employee to handle the other First Lady aspects.
The holidays will be telling.
There is nothing good with hostages by choice, and knowing that these purposeful acts are being done, because on man… can do it, no matter how upset his wife gets.
- Honeybear - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 2:14 pm:
Bulldog I’m with Team Sleep on your comment. Southern Illinois REALLY depends on business help in the form of tax incentives/abatements to stimulate the local economy. I’m all about Mainstreet not Wallstreet. It’s easy to get the two mixed up. My beef is that Rauner is not funding his agencies. I think it’s hypocritical to push from a pro-business agenda and not even fund his own pro-business agency DCEO. Rauner should be tripling the staff at DCEO and OVERFUNDING the agency. THAT I could understand and get as a supposedly pro-business governor. That’s why I am convinced that this whole thing is not about pro-business reforms. He demonstrates time and time again that he actually has no interest in business, only destroying unions. PROVE ME WRONG!
- Sir Reel - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 2:33 pm:
“some disastrous short term pain for some undefined perhaps minimal long term gain” There, fixed it.
- Formerly Known As... - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 2:44 pm:
==not count on a budget resolution until 2016… when the state runs out of money==
Ides of March.
==Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders appear on track to resolve an immediate $1.6 billion deficit and avoid running out of money for prison guards and day care programs==
- Anon III - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 3:52 pm:
“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
Rahm Emanuel
- CrazyHorse - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 4:30 pm:
==If we can’t afford to plow Interstates and State highways this winter, then maybe public pressure will mount.==
Bingo Streator!
- Arizona Bob - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 5:11 pm:
I really haven’t heard of any state services to the general public that have caused any hardship yet. Service groups for the poor, ill, and disabled seems to be having some impact at this point.
As was said above, until snow isn’t removed, classes are cancelled and police and fireman aren’t answering calls, this isn’t on people’s personal radar screens yet.
Until it is, this is primarily an issue for government workers and the bureaucrats rather than the “regular” citizens.
At this point, except for some charity groups giving out freebies from grants, no pain, no pressure on Rauner or the Madman…
- Blue dog dem - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 8:31 pm:
Honey bear–couldnt respectfully disagree with you more. Southern Illinois does not need tax incentives and abatements. What southern Illinois needs are across the board consistent taxing policies. DCEO can go away in my opininion. Why do the Wal-marts and Cargillls of the world need a competitive advantage over small mom and pop businesses.govt in a truly capitalistic system should not pick winners and losers.if taxes need to be changed, change them for everybody.
- Honeybear - Thursday, Oct 22, 15 @ 11:20 pm:
Blue dog, In years past DCEO was a great help to small businesses which I know from personal experience. It wasn’t all EDGE tax incentive. I’m talking about other programs. I would like to see DCEO step it up in the South. Again I’m about Mainstreet not Wallstreet. Also you betray your freemarket thinking with the winners losers stuff. I’m more of a Keynesian. Government can really help. I have been helped before. It’s not just the financial stuff either. Advice and knowledge is a huge untapped resource that DCEO could provide for the State. And nope to your last comment. We need a progressive tax system badly. But there again, I’m a touchy feely theological. I’m not an economist. I’m not even allowed to have the checkbook anymore…..long story.